UK sees breast cancer mortality drop

The mortality rate for breast cancer in the UK has fallen over the past 20 years, it has been suggested.

Research from the International Prevention Research Institute in France found that the UK's mortality rate for the disease fell by 30 per cent between 1980 and 2006.

Rates were found to have fallen by at least 20 per cent in 15 countries.

Hilary Tovey, UK policy manager at Cancer Research, commented: "The UK has seen greater decreases in the number of women dying from breast cancer than many other European countries over this period, though this is partly because death rates were relatively high in the 1980s.

"Reorganising breast cancer services, screening, improved awareness and better treatments, made possible as a result of excellent research, have all had a role to play."

However, she added that better registration of cancer diagnoses is needed in order to make more meaningful comparisons between countries.